Hear the Raven's Cry
by PlasticPencils
Summary: Marceline has a mysterious past which no one knows much about, but when a great vampire war breaks out from what seems like no reason, her entire heritage is revealed. And it could spell death for everyone. Finnceline
1. Chapter 1

~Chapter 1~

Ah, a boy and his dog. What could be more pleasing to the eye? Hm...perhaps it would be interesting if the boy was a hero who saved princesses all the time and warded off an evil but messed-up ice king. Oh, and it would be _awesome_ if the dog was this cool magic dog that could stretch to no limits and could talk.

"Hey, Jake..." a voice whispered behind the dog.

He turned around, yelping audibly at the sight of a floating vampire. The _queen_ of vampires. He didn't hesitate to turn tail and flee to the safety that rested behind his trusted friend. And to be fair to the little yellow dog, who wouldn't be afraid of a vicious vampire? And this one was worse than the others... She liked to mess with people's heads, make them go nuts! And then...and then she was an amazing musician, which made people think she was innocent. Horrible! Just horrible! Jake didn't want his blood sucked from his body. It didn't belong in a vampire's stomach.

He furrowed his dog-brows at the chuckling pale vampire queen. The nerve of that witch...

"Hey, Marceline. What's up?" the blonde-headed boy greeted. Fearlessly.

After all, it was just Marceline. She ate the color red and only sometimes sucked blood. But that was just because she was a vampire, and vampires couldn't live on red alone. She'd told them that not just vampires, but all blood-suckers in general needed the enrichment of red blood cells to survive. And they only way they could get those blood cells, unfortunately, was to plunge their fangs into a victim's skin and suck the nutrients out. It didn't turn the victims into vampires unless the vampire wished it. Or at least, that was how the survival of vampires was explained.

"Listen, Finn. I just wanted to let you know that if you hear rumors about red bite marks tomorrow, don't freak out," she said.

Finn nodded but asked, "Isn't there some other way to get blood? I mean, biting seems kind of-"

"Savage!" Jake finished.

Marceline glared at the companion dog but answered the question anyway. "There's another way to get blood, but it's even worse than bit-"

"Nothing's worse than that!"

"Jake, I swear, if you don't stop, you'll be the first one I bite!" she shouted, instantly silencing him. "Besides, I can't help it if I'm hungry!"

Finn just stayed out of it. He didn't know why his friend had poked at Marceline, especially when he knew how moody she got around this time of the month. Technically, Jake had asked for the wrath of a vampire, and if he got bit tonight, it was his own fault. And to think that this time she'd come to warn them about what horrors tomorrow would bring... Finn could see it now, people lining up just to swarm him with requests to go slay the vampire. He didn't know why they hated being bitten so much. Marceline usually bit people when they were sleeping so they wouldn't feel it, which was much more generous than most other vampires. But when someone saw those bite marks... He kind of felt bad for her. She was hated and feared by so many that it was hard for her to make friends, and she was right in the fact that she couldn't help it when she got hungry. It was just a fact of life for a vampire, to them it was completely natural.

Jake huddled closer to Finn's leg and continued to watch the vampire as she hovered harmlessly above the ground.

"Anyway," she began, "the only other way that comes to mind is to kill them and then lick up their blood."

"Why don't you just bite us, Marceline? We won't get scared like everyone else," the boy stated, trying his level best to ignore the whole comment about killing people and then lapping up the blood like dogs. No offense to Jake.

"Whoa, brother! Speak for yourself, I'm not taking my chances with a vampire!" the dog retorted.

Finn bent down and whispered in Jake's ear, "Dude, you're probably making her feel bad. I know you hate vampires but try to be nice."

Jake groaned miserably in response to his friend. No matter what Finn said, he still wasn't going to let Marceline bite him. It was hard enough just being around her... If she was human or dog or a candy person or anything but a vampire, it would likely be different. But he hated vampires with a passion! Vampires, bats, mosquitoes, ticks! Everything and anything that could remove blood from a body was a monster in his eyes. Just looking at those terrifying fangs that, by tonight, will have bitten holes in enough people to have blood stained onto them... It freaked him out!

"Sorry about that, Marceline. Anyway, I can't speak for Jake, but my neck is open game," he said.

"Really? You won't mind people staring at the bite marks?" Marceline lowered herself onto the ground, feeling Jake's uncomfortable entrancement.

It was well-known among vampires and their prey that anyone who was bitten was temporarily categorized as vampire feed. It was humiliating to be bitten and have someone see the marks that were left behind, but again, vampires couldn't help it. They had to eat, just like everyone else. But come to think of it, Finn's blood would be like coffee to any creature who sucked it. He was so full of energy it should be illegal.

"I think I'll pass," she said. "I don't like biting people I know."

Which meant that tomorrow, there would be quorums of people bombarding the two of them with desperate pleas to hunt and kill Marceline. And they would have to come up with an excuse as to why they didn't kill her the last time she bit people. It happened every month, and though it was annoying, it was something that had to be done to protect Marceline. But it could be worse; not everyone disliked her. Princess Bubblegum, ruler of the Candy Kingdom, didn't exactly dislike Marceline because she was a vampire, but the girls had some bad blood between them. It was probably because of an incident that happened several months back, when Marceline sucked out Peppermint Butler's red stripes. They had to paint on new ones.

But aside from the Nut Kingdom and Princess Bubblegum, and of course Finn and Jake, everyone waited for the day Marceline and all the other vampires would die. Being a vampire, Finn realized, was tougher than it seemed. And he'd noticed something very strange recently, something that for some reason, he'd never thought of before. Except for that one time with her ex-boyfriend, he had never seen Marceline interact with another vampire. Yet somehow she was their queen. Could it be that there were so few vampires that they were hard to find? Well, no, that couldn't be it. If that were true then they would for sure come to Marceline. Why would they keep away from their own _queen_? It was mind-boggling, really. If you compared Marceline to all the other queens and princesses and duchesses and all other rulers in general, then it was obvious that everyone else actually _ruled_ their kingdom. It didn't look like Marceline even had a kingdom to rule. In fact, there wasn't even a king! Did Marceline have any subjects? If so, where were they?

Boy, he never realized up until now what a mysterious past and heritage Marceline had. Finn felt inclined to ask her about it, but decided against it. She was moody enough as it was, and if there was something painful or traumatizing or whatnot in her past, who knows how she would react?

He snapped out of his thoughts just in time to see a dark speck in the already-darker sky. It was Marceline leaving.

Since it was already getting dark out, and since Marceline would be feeding soon, the two "brothers" decided to get some rest for the chaos that was sure to come tomorrow.

**A/N **

**I just kind of had this idea pop in my head after watching one episode of Adventure Time and I thought I'd give this a try. Hope you enjoyed it and tell me what you think so far.**


	2. Chapter 2

~Chapter 2~

The next day, a furious gathering of people surrounded the treehouse, their prattle acting as Finn and Jake's alarm clock. When the boys went to check it out, mainly because they wanted to see how many angry people Marceline had bitten last night and how many more angry people were angry about their friends and family being bitten, they found acres upon acres of dreadful people from every square inch of Ooo. Each was waiting impatiently for the heroes to come out. Each wanted to barrage them with complaints and demands, not requests, to kill the monster once and for all so these incidents wouldn't happen again. And each seemed to be just as irate as the next.

Thanks to Marceline simply being Marceline, Finn and Jake had to go through this every single month since they met her. Helping people was what they did, but nobody ever counted her as a person, just a bloodthirsty demon. So of course the people of Ooo wouldn't expect _heroes_ to help a _vampire_. To them it was the unthinkable, and if they found out they could turn from angry to mad. As in, crazy mad. But the boys also had to imagine how much Marceline had to be hurt by this. She might be watching from somewhere hidden, obscured from any prying eyes. If only they could understand that the bite didn't change them or make them sick or do anything bad to them.

But there was also a slight problem with helping Marceline. Jake. Jake's greatest fear was anything that sucked blood. But vampires really sent him over the edge. This included Marceline even though she was their friend.

And Marceline was watching from tall shrubs that were fully leafed, holding an umbrella to shield herself from the sunlight. All those people out there wanted to kill her. Some were even from the Nut Kingdom. And some...were from the Candy Kingdom. After sucking out Peppermint Butler's stripes, she signed a royal treaty that declared she wasn't allowed to bite anyone within the confines of the Candy Kingdom. And she hadn't bitten them. She also hadn't paid a visit to the Nut Kingdom. So who had bitten them?

She gulped as she saw Princess Bubblegum move around the side of the crowd. Princess or not, those guys were so infuriated that they wouldn't let anyone through. Princess Bubblegum would undoubtedly blame her for the attacks on her kingdom. Things got even worse when she saw the angry Duke and Duchess of the Nut Kingdom draw nearer to Wildberry Princess. She was going to be blamed for a crime she didn't commit. And since pretty much everybody already despised vampires, probably every one of those people would be on the lookout for her, each wielding a weapon of some sort. Perhaps a wooden stake, or maybe a gun harboring a silver bullet. If their choice was a cross, though, they were setting themselves up for disappointment. Neither crosses nor running water affected a vampire. It was better if they didn't know that.

She sighed heavily. It would take some time for them to settle back down. She knew that. In the meantime, she could stick to eating the color red. She could lay low. But...only for awhile. Only until a few days before her term of fifty years was up. It would be grueling and tedious, but she'd been through it plenty of times. So many times that she'd built strategies and trained herself to expect the unexpected. But sometimes the unexpected was just too unexpected to expect...if that made any sense.

But as for Finn and Jake, they were in for it. They'd "failed" to kill the vampire so many times now that everyone was getting frustrated, wondering whether they could do it or not. Some of them were starting to have suspicions about the two, suggesting the reason for their failures rested in the fact that they were in an alliance with the vampire, and some others claimed that they were under the vampire's control. None of it was true. They weren't really in an alliance with Marceline, they just helped her when she needed it. And it was ridiculous to think that she would put them under her control. They didn't even know if she _could_ control people.

"Man, what are we going to tell them? Everyone's going to want an explanation," Finn said to his dog.

"How should I know?" The dog examined the crowd and seconds after, his eyes widened. "I think I see Princess Bubblegum down there, on the edge. Oh, and there's Wildberry Princess. And...hey, isn't that the duke and duchess of the Nut Kingdom? Finn, what going on?"

As Finn spotted them one by one, he answered, "I don't know. Marceline promised not to bite anyone in the Candy Kingdom, and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't bite anyone in the Nut Kingdom either."

Jake shuddered at the thought that maybe Marceline had gotten so hungry she'd gone crazy with blood lust. "Dude, what if Marceline bit them by accident?" He had to shake that thought out of his. He'd have a panic attack if he continued to think about it.

"I don't think so. She's pretty perceptive and her eyesight is as good as ours. I doubt she would make a mistake like that," the blonde replied.

"Well then what happened? Why is there royalty here? Dude...what if she bit a _princess_?"

"Huh?"

"Think about it! Why else would PB be here?" Jake looked down again to find a small purple thing floating in the air, just as full of complaints as everyone else. "Oh...even LSP is here! She must've bitten someone royal and all the other kingdoms heard about it!"

Finn tried to count the number of people with bite marks. Some people had two bite marks; others had three or four. "Wait a minute, Jake. Look at all those bite marks. Maybe some of them were from Marceline, but there's no way she got all those people _that_ many times in one night. It's too much blood even for a vampire."

As much as he didn't want to believe it, Jake knew his buddy was right. Vampires didn't bite _anyone_ twice, let alone three or four times. And he didn't think she was one to break her contract with the Candy Kingdom, especially since Princess Bubblegum was in charge. And he noted that LSP herself had bite marks, two of them. There were four red holes on her, meaning that a total of four fangs had been in her. Vampires only had two fangs each, which meant...

"Dude," Jake whispered as an epiphany hit him. "There's more than one vampire."

"Well, yeah. Marceline can't be the Vampire Queen if there aren't any other vampires," Finn said.

"No, no, not that! I meant there's other vampires _here_. They must've been the ones who bit all those people."

"Huh. I didn't think about that. But all we need to do is talk to Marceline. She's the queen, so she can tell the others to stop biting so many people all at once," Finn answered.

* * *

><p>She overheard them talking as they came closer to her hiding spot. They'd masterfully ditched the whole crowd. It was all a blur; she didn't even know how they did it. But they had, and now they probably had some questions for her. Most likely questions regarding the abnormal number of bite marks. But they weren't left by her, not all of them anyway. Rather, they were left <em>for<em> her. She had been left a sign, a sign that told her she had to leave soon.

Here they came, closer and closer. They were talking about how confused they were at the number of bite marks as well as the number of people bitten. They spoke of how they hoped she would be able to answer all their questions.

And then finally, Finn's head popped through the shrubbery, and shortly after followed Jake's head. The dog's face scrunched up in fear.

"Okay, I know you probably have a lot of questions, but I swear I didn't bite all those people," she said.

It was a bit of an awkward moment. Marceline didn't know what Finn and Jake were going to ask, and Finn and Jake were trying to decided on a question to ask first. Because she was right, they really did have a ton of questions. But it was best for now if only a select few were asked. It would be easier for everyone.

"Okay, Marceline, we know you didn't bite all those people, and we know that there are other vampires here. Did they come looking for you?" Finn asked, feeling Jake tremble against his leg.

She sighed uncomfortably before answering. "You could say that."

"Well them to stop biting everybody!" Jake demanded.

Marceline chuckled nervously. "Yeah, about that... I don't really know...I mean... Look, guys, I can't do anything."

The blonde laughed, obviously not taking it literally. "Stop playing games, Marceline. You're the queen, right? So just tell them to stop and they'll stop."

After a long period of ominous silence, it became very clear to the both of them that she was serious. But it wasn't like they could ever understand. Even if she told them why all those bite marks were there, and why the others had come looking for her, they still wouldn't get it. Besides, it was probably better if they didn't know yet. It was probably better if _no one_ knew yet. All they would understand is that everything they knew could shatter in an instant. It wouldn't change anything even if she warned them about impending doom. Her term of fifty years was quickly coming to an end; those bite marks on so many people were left there to remind her of that. She'd worked hard to get her title of the Vampire Queen. She'd clawed her way to the top, but...well... It would become evident anyway.

"Do me a favor, Finn. Tell everyone out there that the fifty years are up," she said.

"Sure thing," Finn replied.

It was Marceline, she could be trusted. But what were the fifty years? And why was it so imperative that everyone be told they were up? He wondered if it was a warning. But if it was, then why didn't she tell them about what was going to happen? Either way, it couldn't be all that bad if she didn't even bother to explain it. But hey, Marceline must have some kind of reason as to why they needed to be told. It might have something to do with all the vampire attacks. And probably something to do with the reason her subjects were looking for her. But it was Marceline. She knew what she was doing, and there had to be a good reason as to why she refused to give the boys detail on "the fifty years". There _had_ to be a reason, he they just needed to trust her decision.

He couldn't help but thinking that the fifty years was something that had an important role concerning her. Could it have been something with her dad? Even though he'd told her he loved her when he was released from the Nightosphere, Finn had a feeling she never believed him. He highly doubted it was just that single incident with the fries. That was probably just one of the events that had hurt her. She'd probably still been hurting because of her dad.

And it was must've been just as painful to know that nearly everyone in the land of Ooo didn't think of her as a person with feelings, but as a heartless abomination. If she felt anything from that, she hid it well. But...not well enough. And then of course there was Jake, who was supposed to at least be nice to her, but also the guy who wasn't helping. Yeah, he was scared of vampires, and yeah, she was a vampire, so naturally he would fear her. But really, poor Marceline. Jake was just another being who hated her guts.

At least she had Finn, at least she had a shoulder to lean on when things got bad. And right now, it only seemed like things kept getting worse. All those vampire bite marks would be blamed on her, even though she wasn't the culprit.

He sighed as he went off to face the infuriated mob of people, which apparently had gained newcomers. It would be easier if he could convince them that Marceline never did anything that bad, but... Well, hopefully the fifty years comment would help. Hopefully it would bring the huge crowd to believe she was innocent for the most part. Yeah. Yeah! That _had_ to be the reason she asked him to tell them that. She was probably feeling like a burden since she knew what they had to do every month, so she figured that if they could relay that message to the people of Ooo, then everyone would stop discriminating and accept the facts for what they were.

It was going to be a promising day, he could feel it!

**A/N**

**Yeah, there was a TON of dialogue in this story, but I tried to make up for it in the beginning and end. I'm so sorry if you didn't like it. I'll try harder next time, I promise! :) And thank you SO MUCH for your reviews! You don't realize how much they mean to me! :'D If anything needs to be improved, please don't hesitate to tell me. Oh and also, is Marceline spelled right?**


	3. Chapter 3

~Chapter 3~

"People of Ooo!" Finn yelled, catching their attention one by one. When the noise finally choked out, he continued. "I have a message for y'all. I don't exactly know what it means, but I was told to tell you that the fifty years are up."

A wave of horrified gasps lifted from the crowd. Terrified whispers ran throughout the veins of the body of people, some were even starting to cry. No one under the age of fifty knew what to do. Those ones probably didn't even know what it meant. But those fifty and up trembled, as though the news was so horrific that it was supposed to be illegal just to talk about. And judging from the confused looks on the younger generation, it had at one point become illegal. Maybe it was just automatic. Maybe the fifty years was so traumatizing that no one wanted to speak of it. What...what exactly was the fifty years? What happened? He thought it was supposed to be good news... Marceline had only brought terror to Ooo by telling him to tell them. But...why? Was this another one of her games? Was she still in the shrubs, laughing merrily while Ooo was scared stiff? She'd looked serious, but... He couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on!

"Are you sure, Finn?" Cinnamon Bun asked. "Are the fifty years really ending?"

Even the Ice King had joined the gathering. Upon closer inspection, he had been bitten three times. Actually that was kind of weird. Seriously, who would want to bite the Ice King?

He began a little interrogation of his own, agreeing with one of the elderly Candy Kingdom residents. "Yeah, Finn, are you sure? Has it been fifty years or are you just messing with us?"

Many other older people began questioning whether it was true or not. But it wasn't a real question, it seemed more like they wanted reassurance and hope if anything. But why? The fifty years, he thought, was a good thing. Or...maybe it was only good for Marceline. Of course! It was good for vampires! Maybe every fifty years some special event occurred that made it dark out, like a solar eclipse or something. Then all the hungry vampires wouldn't have to wait until night for a meal. Maybe that was why Marceline told him to tell everyone, so that Ooo could expect all those vampires.

"No, I'm not messing with you. But, just out of curiosity, what are the fifty-"

The blonde-headed boy didn't even get to finish his question. Some of the elderly women were screaming and others began crying out. Still others were asking the older people what to do. And the older people kept screaming out, "Evacuate the lands!" But why? This wasn't supposed to be this way. Going so far as to evacuate everyone was pretty excessive.

And it had to be bad if even Ice King was helping those like Cinnamon Bun clear everyone out of the way. And for once he was ignoring the presence of all the princesses. This meant the news had to be worse than he thought... But...again...why...?

"Jake, do you anything about the fifty years?" Finn asked, turning to his canine friend for answers.

"Sorry, brother. I don't know anything. Maybe you should ask Beemo. He's a computer, so he might know something." Jake stretched his arm into the living room and grabbed Beemo without the little robot's consent.

Finn didn't hesitate to ask, especially because of how bad things were getting outside. People were panicking, some were even hyperventilating. And as a hero, he had to do something about it.

"Beemo, do you know anything about the fifty years?" he asked.

Beemo thought for a second, scanning his hard drive for the information requested. But there wasn't any. "I don't have anything, sorry."

They would have to wait until night and find Marceline. She knew what the fifty years was. After all, she was the one who instructed Finn and Jake to tell- No...no, she wasn't asking them to tell everyone. She was asking them to _warn_ everyone. But, man, what he would give to know what it meant. Jake didn't know, Beemo didn't know, the majority of Ooo didn't seem to know...and there didn't seem to be anyone who wasn't too busy panicking to tell him what it was. What happened fifty years ago? Or rather, what was _going_ to happen? Everyone was freaking out...no one would be willing to waste their time explaining what the fifty years was. They all seemed so willing and ready to escape this "fifty years". Ugh...why couldn't Marceline have been more specific? She liked being all mysterious sometimes, but this was either for real, or she was taking a prank too far. If this was a prank... But all those bite marks...

The only other option, and the only choice they had, was to ask the Vampire Queen herself.

* * *

><p>That night, they went to visit Marceline's cave to find it, and her house, completely empty. They looked everywhere, determined as ever to fin her. Jake was reluctant to come along, especially since it was nighttime and he could see in the dark <em>and<em> he was colorblind, but he came along anyway at Finn's insistence. The nearest kingdom was the Candy Kingdom, where half of it had fled in an attempt to find safety. The other half, including Princess Bubblegum, had tucked themselves away in their houses, trying to comfort their children as well as themselves. And sure enough, just outside of the kingdom in a large and open clearing, they saw none other than Marceline.

It was a disgusting scene, and they found themselves wishing they'd never even come across the clearing. Blood was splattered everywhere. A total of eleven dead vampires, all girls, lay still on the blood painted ground. The grass was stained dark red. The few blossoming weeds that had sprouted were heavy with vampire blood. And some of the trees lining the clearing had the nectar of life puddling around them. The blood hadn't dried; the fight was fresh.

And smack in the center of the gory mess was Marceline. She was still breathing, but very faintly. She was unconscious, meaning it was impossible to get answers out of her. And now there were new questions, one of them regarding what the glob had happened here. Every footstep resulted in a gross sucking noise from the wet earth. But they managed to reach Marceline without throwing up from the stench that came along with the sight.

After much pleading from Finn, Jake got down on his paws and forced his back to flatten and dip a little bit. He refrained from freaking out when he felt Marceline being lowered gently onto him. Blood trickled from somewhere on her and seeped onto his back. He felt like having a nervous breakdown at that moment, but thankfully Finn kept his calm as they made their way to the Candy Kingdom's castle, where the hospital staff would care for Marceline and help her get better. PB might not like her, but she was too nice to not help a person in need.

Marceline was lucky she'd passed out right in front of the kingdom. It didn't take long to carry her up to the castle infirmary.

"D-Dude..." Jake whispered, his voice shaky, "...Dude...she...m-might wake up...and bite me..."

Finn frowned and glanced at Marceline. "Relax, Jake, we're already here. Besides, she needs our help right now. And don't worry, even if she wakes up, she's not going to bite y-"

A candy cane person had peeked cautiously, whining fearfully at the sight of Marceline's motionless body. The candy cane was an old person. He might know something about the fifty years...

Finn smiled. "Say, candy cane man, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the fif-"

"FOOL!" he shouted angrily. "YOU'VE WROUGHT DOOM UPON US ALL!"

The words echoed throughout the infirmary as the old man hobbled out, wobbly on his cane. He continued grumbling about something on his way out, and didn't stop to look back. He didn't seem to care that Marceline was hurt.

"Uh...Finn...I don't think they want a vampire in here... A-and I don't want one on my back..." Jake said.

"Nah, man, he was just grumpy. Sometimes old-timers are like that," the blonde replied.

But he was worried about Marceline. She was still unconscious and she was cut up everywhere. Blood had already soaked into Jake's fur. Her mouth wasn't open, but Jake didn't know that. Somewhere along the way, before all this nonsense started up, she had told them about vampire instincts. She'd said that if her fangs came in contact with skin, it triggered an uncontrollable urge to bite, kind of like a reflex. So even unconscious, if her mouth opened and her fangs touched Jake, he might be bitten. The poor dog was scared beyond measure, and Finn didn't know how much longer it would be before he dumped her and ran.

Light footsteps resounded through the room, and the boys turned to see who it was.

"PB!" Jake exclaimed. "Perfect timing! Take her, get her off me!"

Princess Bubblegum looked up from her notebook and walked up to the twosome. "Hello. Is there something you need?"

"Yeah, we need your help. Marceline's hurt," Finn answered.

"Oh... Well, I'm not sure how to treat vampires, but I'll try my best. Where is she?"

Jake turned around, hoping to the crawdad people that she would get the vampire off his back. Her reaction was anything but good. She screeched in horror.

"What have you done! Why did you bring her here!" she cried.

"Um, the Candy Kingdom was the nearest-" Jake was cut off by an angry PB.

"No, she can't be here! Weren't _you_ the one telling everyone that the fifty years were up?" She cast a pointed glance at Finn.

"What _are_ the fifty years, anyway?" he asked, trying to ignore the imaginary knives being thrown at him.

The glare stopped and Jake stilled himself. Everything was quiet, as if the whole world was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen, waiting for what the princess had to say. Wondering what she would say and how she would say it. Hoping it was good somehow even though it was obvious that everyone had freaked over the news. Wishing that the people of Ooo hadn't reacted how they did.

"Finn, how do you not know what the fifty years are? Marceline should've told you by now," she told him, her voice just slightly above a whisper.

"She didn't tell me anything, she just told me to tell you guys so I did. Do you know what they are, Princess Bubblegum?" he asked, once more eager to know what was to be so frightening.

As she helped Jake lift Marceline off Jake's back and onto a hospital bed, to Jake's relief, she explained what the whole deal was with this fifty years thing.

"Every fifty years," she began, "all the female vampires seek out the queen, and challenge her for her title. Many females arrive at the same time, each time coming in greater numbers. Eventually a massive attack is staged against the queen, but in the chaos, most of them attack each other to lessen the competition. The result is a ferocious war that lasts for weeks. And as the intensity of the war grows, entire kingdoms are destroyed and innumerable lives are lost."

"Wait, hold up, princess. Isn't the queen vampire in control? Can't she just tell all her subjects to cut it out?" Jake asked from the other side of the infirmary.

She sighed. "You misunderstand a vampire queen's position. Unlike all other rulers, the queen vampire doesn't come with royal blood. In fact, being the queen is literally _only_ a title, it only means that she's the strongest of the female vampires. She doesn't have a kingdom or subjects or anything else."

Finn blinked, never having thought of a queen as being so powerless. "Then Marceline should just retire, right? And then this whole war thing will be over because there won't be a queen to attack."

PB shook her head. "She can't give up her position. Even if she said she wasn't the queen anymore, the others would still come after her."

"Why?"

"Because the only way to overthrow the queen vampire is to kill her," she replied. "The one who accomplishes that is declared the new queen, and after a certain amount of time, the war ends and the last 'queen' standing becomes the Vampire Queen for fifty years. And fifty years later, it starts all over."

"All you've been talking about are the girl vampires. Can't Marceline just ask for a guy's help?" Jake asked, finally deciding it was safe enough to come back over to his buddy Finn.

Princess Bubblegum stiffened and stopped tending to Marceline. "Um..."

"This is an adult conversation...isn't it?" he said, hardly a question at all.

She nodded and with her action, Jake formed one of his paws into a pair of soundproof earmuffs, putting them on Finn's head.

He couldn't hear a thing. PB started making gestures with her hands and it was obvious she was explaining something. Occasionally Jake would ask a question or two, and sometimes the princess would scratch her head and continue. At other times, she would blush. Being close friends with Marceline at one point had really paid off. She knew practically everything there was to know about vampires. He kind of wanted to know what they were talking about though. But, at the same time, there was probably a good reason Jake wouldn't let him hear the conversation. If both Jake and Princess Bubblegum thought it was for the best, then chances were it was for the best. The princess punched the air a couple times and then threw her hands up, still talking. Finn wondered if the guy vampires were also fighting at the time that the girls were. Maybe that was why Marceline couldn't ask for their help. It made sense, because if the guy vampires were fighting as well, they would be too busy to help the girls. But what would the guys be fighting over?

After just a few more minutes, the makeshift earmuffs released his head, and Jake turned around, his face as red as a brick.

"Um, Princess Bubblegum, you should probably put that in a nutshell, and then sugarcoat it," the dog said.

She blushed. "Oh, right... Well, Finn, uh, to put it simply... The male vampires, they, uh..."

"Just tell me what you told Jake, I can handle it," the blonde said, grinning proudly.

"Don't do it!" Jake hissed.

"Why not? I want to know, too." Finn said

"Dude, trust me on this one. It's not something for boys your age, and it most certainly isn't something you want to hear."

"No, I want to hear it."

"Yeah, you keep thinking that."

Princess Bubblegum hushed them both and tried to come up with a way to, as Jake told her, sugarcoat it while keeping it as close to as little detail as possible. But there was hardly a solution. The only real way to "put it in a nutshell", as Jake had phrased it, was to tell it straightforward.

"Um, Finn, Marceline knows better than to go anywhere near the males. See, male vampires fight to become the king of vampires. But...the only way they can become the king isn't by proving their strength like the girls, they become the king by...d'um... It's like this, they don't exactly _marry_ the queen to become king, they..." It was hard to finish that sentence, especially for a princess. So she turned to Jake. "Jake, I've told enough. You can finish for me."

The dog gulped and looked at a confused Finn, who had also turned to him for the rest of the description. He laughed nervously and took a breath. Finn was just fourteen, he wasn't old enough to know about these things yet. And if he was told, he would only demand further answers, more in depth, more graphic. It was a lot of pressure for just one little, helpless dog.

"Well, Finn, homie, brother, pal, buddy... Princess Bubblegum told me that the only way a dude vampire can become the king is by...you know...uh...passing on his genes to the...well, queen," he said.

"What does that mean for Marceline?" the boy asked.

"Well, Marceline _is_ the queen," he replied.

"So, wait... The only way there can be a Vampire King is if... OH MY SOCKS!"

**A/N**

**Well, now you know what the fifty years are and why it's so important. I don't know what compelled me to actually WRITE this idea instead of keeping it inside my head, but, kind of too late to do anything about that. Thank you for all the reviews! I mean, FIFTEEN reviews for TWO chapters? That's awesome! (or, in better wording, MATHEMATICAL!) **

**I hope you liked this chapter and don't forget to review it, because I really want to know if you think I should take this down or not. Some of it might've been a little disturbing and I understand that.**


	4. Chapter 4

~Chapter 4~

"What can we do to help her?" Finn asked, genuinely worried for his vampire friend.

"For starters, we can wake her up," PB answered.

"How? She passed out from being ambushed by other vampires, probably the ones you were talking about earlier," Jake said.

Princess Bubblegum tilted Marceline's head so that it was upright. She opened the queen's mouth, revealing two long, sharp, white fangs. The very same ones that had enough power to scare Jake to the core. There were tiny holes right above the innermost tips of the fangs. They were probably what allowed her to suck blood, kind of like when you got a flu shot except in reverse. What was it like to suck blood? Did it taste like water to her, or did it have a taste all its own, maybe something vampires were naturally attracted to? Oh well, Marceline would never turn anyone into a vampire even if they asked her to. Therefore, they would never know what it was like to live the life of a vampire.

The princess turned her arm perpendicular to Marceline's fangs and gently nudged them. In the blink of an eye, those scary white points dug into her skin and began sucking. She winced at the sharp pain. It was like bottle-feeding a baby. Only PB was arm-feeding an unconscious vampire.

"I thought she was unconscious, why is she sucking your arm blood?" Finn asked.

Jake was too petrified to move. He'd never seen a vampire feed before, except for when she ate red. An apple or a strawberry or a tomato was fine, but a princess's arm? She was drinking blood in her sleep! What if he was next in line? What if he was on her list of delicious snacks? What if he tasted good? No, then she'd want more! Horrible vampires... Blood was essential to someone's life! And she took it from them! TOOK IT FROM THEM! What kind of horrible evil brought vampires into existence? What if it was a giant mosquito? Those no-good bloodthirsty monsters had always been out for revenge against Ooo for smashing them all the time! That's why they created vampires, something that couldn't be squashed!

"She is. Feeding is an instinctual thing for vampires. When their fangs touch flesh, it triggers a chemical reaction in their brain. They bite down and start a feeding trance. When they're done, they snap out of it," she explained. "Therefore, even though she's unconscious, her body reacts normally to her senses."

"Um, yeah. I thought it was that," Jake lied.

"But Marceline's fine when she eats the color red," Finn said, somewhat questioningly.

Princess Bubblegum giggled. "It's amazing how little you know about vampires. Anyway, eating red isn't sustainable for a vampire. It only suppresses blood cravings, but in order to live they need real blood. That's why they're vampires, and not paintbrushes."

Marceline's eyes opened, but the princess's statements had been correct. She didn't look at anything in particular, she just sort of stared straight ahead, straight at the ceiling. Neither of the boys had ever seen her suck blood until now. It was interesting to see what happened the night before all those angry people came running up to them. A bright red color formed on the corners of her mouth, so much that some of it trickled down.

"Don't worry, it's normal," she assured them.

"Hey, princess, how do you know so much about vampires?" Jake asked. "I mean, you live in a sweet, adorable little candy land. I know you and Marceline were friends at one time, but she never tells us any of these things."

"Yes, we were very good friends a long time ago." She sighed thoughtfully, almost wistfully. "And when we were friends, I gained an interest in science. I thought that since I was best friends with a vampire, she could help me with my first research project. I decided to study vampires. Marceline agreed to let me study her. She told me everything there was to know about vampires, including everything about the fifty years. She let me study her fangs and her extreme sensitivity to the sun. Once she even let me watch her feed. But...to complete the research I needed her to bite me. She wouldn't do it, even after we stopped being friends."

"But she's biting you now," Jake observed.

"Yes, but only because I _made_ her bite me. If she hadn't been unconscious, she would never have allowed this to happen."

Finn opted to chime in. "Why doesn't Marceline want to bite people she knows?"

She groaned. "That was the one thing she never told me. Believe me, I've asked her a million times, but she just kept saying the same thing. 'I don't like biting people I know.'"

"Hey, that's the same thing she told us!" he exclaimed.

Marceline moaned as she brought her fangs from Princess Bubblegum's arm. The pinkette looked a little worn out, probably from the loss of blood. The Vampire Queen cleared her throat and rubbed her eyes as she sat up. It seemed that blood didn't just nourish a vampire, it energized them. She didn't seem to be all that aware of her surroundings yet, and stretched. And when she yawned, Jake froze as he caught a glimpse of the blood Marceline had been sucking. Her whole mouth was coated with it, as well as her fangs. There was still that uneven streak of red liquid across her cheek from where PB's blood had dribbled down. It was enough to scar the dog for life.

Marceline smoothed her tongue over her fangs and lips to wipe away the blood. Then she completely woke up. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she looked around. The reality set in. She was about to say something, but her tongue clicked. Then it clicked again as she realized what she tasted. She cast a quick glance to the princess's arm. It had two holes in it, two fang holes. One bite mark.

"Bonnibell!" she yelled. "Why'd you _do_ that?"

Princess Bubblegum looked up. "You needed the blood."

"I don't like to bite people I know! And I don't like to wake up tasting _bubblegum_!" She huffed and saw Finn and Jake in the corner of her eye. "Y...You showed them...?"

"You needed the blood!" she repeated.

"You _promised_ you'd never show anyone!"

"They saved your life!"

"You could've gotten them out!"

"_You_ should've told them what the fifty years were!" the princess yelled.

Marceline was speechless. This argument had ended. Fast. She didn't tell them because she would've been hounded with questions, most of them linking to her vampire lineage. She didn't want them to save her life, and she hadn't thought they would bring her to the Candy Kingdom. The only reason she had been ambushed in the first place was because the war was just setting into motion, the other vampires were already coming for her. The only reason she happened to be near the Candy Kingdom at the time was because she'd learned that Princess Bubblegum was staying behind to help her people, so she had come to warn her. Now the boys had become involved and wouldn't run like the others. It was already too late for everyone else.

"I'm sorry, Marceline," Finn apologized. "We didn't mean to cause trouble for you, we just wanted to help."

She sighed. The fifty years were up. If he had run like he was supposed to, if he had listen to the elders' panic, then he would've helped by giving her one less person to worry about. But now that he knew what the fifty years were, he would fight. Jake probably wouldn't, not up against all those vampires, but Finn...

"Finn, you don't even know the whole story. There's more to the fifty years than you think. A bunch of vampires come looking for me-"

"Yeah, PB told us all about it. But the ones fighting you are only girls because they're trying to become the new queen, right? And then the dude vampires are fighting to become the king, but they can only do that if-" Finn was immediately cut off before he could further embarrass Marceline.

"SHUT UP!" She turned to the princess. "You told them about _that_, too? They don't need to know any of _that_! I only told _you_ because you needed it for your stupid research, I didn't want you to repeat it to anybody! I bet you also told them about that one weakness that all the girls have, huh?"

Princess Bubblegum raised a finger to object, but Marceline wouldn't allow her to say a single word. The vampire whirled around to face the two heroes.

"Yeah, okay? Everything she told you is true! But you don't think I _know_ what'll happen if I'm caught? I mean, it shouldn't come a shock, right? Because vampires are all about blood, aren't they?" she continued to rant.

"W-Wait, Marceline!" Jake shouted.

"You know what? J-Just forget it! I don't need this!"

The vampire queen slung open the nearest window and darted out, zooming through the air as though her life depended on it. And at one point, she knew, it would. It wasn't like she hadn't participated in this war before. She knew what going to happen, how physically painful it would be, how exhausting she would get, how high the chances were that she would be killed. And telling the boys that much was fine, but telling them everything else? Why would Princess Bubblegum do that? Marceline already knew that if she was caught by a male vampire, there was no escape. They were bigger and stronger. Thankfully they weren't as quick, but still... And then PB had to inform the boys of that. There were boundaries, she needed to realize that. And this totally crossed the line.

She slowed down, beginning to tire. She had lost more blood than she'd taken in, and although the bleeding had stopped, her anger and actions had drained her of the energy from the blood she _had_ taken in. Even though it was to save her...why did Princess Bubblegum force her to bite? She didn't like biting people she knew. Sucking blood was the only reason everyone hated her. Those like Finn and Jake only thought of it as a bite and nothing more. But it wasn't just a bite, it was an abominable blood ritual. It was something she couldn't control. They didn't know what it was like to take someone's blood from their body. People needed blood to live, and she was taking it from them. So to take blood from someone who for once _didn't _hate her was like partially killing them. It was complete betrayal!

So when Finn had asked her to bite him instead of other people... It had been kind of hurtful that he'd even thought of asking that. To be a vampire wasn't as fun as it seemed. Sure, you could fly, scare people, and all that other stuff, but at what cost? Being a horrible bloodsucker, that...that disgusting _thing_ that everyone thought so lowly of, was nothing but a curse. Vampires were nothing but a burden to everybody, even friends. If they could survive on normal food instead of blood, then everyone would like them. Vampires could eat normal foods, but couldn't live off it. Plus, they couldn't go directly into sunlight like everyone else, they couldn't feel its warmth. So vampires became pale, making them outcasts and identifying them immediately as those unwanted creatures that, in the eyes of Ooo, should be tied to a pole and left to burn in the sun.

And she was the queen, she was the most feared, the most hated, the most unwanted.

* * *

><p>"I should never have made her bite me," Princess Bubblegum sighed.<p>

"It's not your fault, princess. Marceline just overreacted," Jake said.

She sighed again. "No, she didn't. Do you two know why Marceline and I aren't friends anymore?"

Finn shook his head. "What happened between you guys anyway?"

The princess took a breath and said, "Back when I was trying to finish my research on vampires, do you remember when I told you how she wouldn't bite me even when I asked her to? Even after she refused, I kept begging her. I was so blinded by my determination to complete my research that I didn't realize my requests were hurting her. Eventually I grew tired of asking her to bite me. I called her selfish over and over because she wouldn't heed to my causes. One day I finally went too far. I told her that if she wouldn't bite me, there was no point in having her around. So she left, and I didn't see her again until many years later, when she ate Peppermint Butler's stripes. When she signed the contract, she made it very clear that she was still mad at me for what I'd done. And now I've forced her to do the one thing she never wanted to do..."

"It doesn't make any sense to me, why doesn't she like to bite people she knows? If anything, it should show her that we'll always be there when she needs us," Finn said.

"Stop it, Finn! Don't make the same mistake I did," the princess commanded. "It hurts her."

**A/N**

**Well, it looks like I'm not allowed to take Chapter 3 down, lolz! I'm really glad you guys liked it so much though! One of the reasons I put this chapter in is because (a) I didn't want to rush the story and (b) I wanted to write what sounded legitimate enough to be Marceline's and PB's past friendship and how it was shattered. I thought this fit in with the story really well, as well as that time Marceline sang "I'm Just Your Problem" to Princess Bubblegum. If you listen to that song while reading this, you'll be shocked! It sounds like Marceline is singing about this particular event. You can find the song on youtube.**

**Another reason I put up this story is because I wanted to let everyone know that Marceline really DOES hate biting people she knows, and I wanted to explain why. I really thought this story flowed together and connected really well. I hope you think the same!  
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**Please review but more importantly, please enjoy this story. ;) 'Cause it sucks when you can't enjoy a story.**


	5. Chapter 5

~Chapter 5~

Marceline looked up at the silver moon. Just a sliver of it remained. The war was already underway. It hadn't seemed like fifty years had passed so soon. She could still taste the princess's blood in her mouth. The unmistakeable taste of bubblegum. She didn't want to admit that it tasted good just because it was sweet. She'd bitten her former friend. Even after she swore she wouldn't bite anyone she knew. Curse these fangs. They caused nothing but pain. Pain and suffering. That was all. They sucked blood. That was all a vampire was good for, right? The stupid war caused devastation to Ooo, just one more reason to hate herself. Blood would be shed from her own kind. Blood. Again. She was tired of being called a monster when she couldn't help it. She was tired of having to suck people's blood to survive. She was tired of people asking her to bite them. But most of all, she was tired of being a vampire. A hideous thing that everyone frowned on and glared at, the thing that everyone tried to keep away with threats. She was no better than a housefly. Everyone wanted to swat at her until she was squished. Or maybe a tick, something that couldn't be squished but could easily be plucked off and flushed down a toilet.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and sighed heavily. She wasn't like Finn or Jake or Princess Bubblegum... She was a horrid creature. As much as she wanted to deny it, she wasn't a person. She wished she didn't have emotions. It would make life so much easier for her. She wouldn't want to watch the people that gathered around Finn and Jake every month, each time hoping one of them, at least one, wouldn't be too bothered by the bite marks. But it had never worked out that way. But since when had life ever really given her a break? She was cursed with being a vampire, almost no one liked her, everyone who liked her kept asking her to suck their blood, her mother was murdered before her very eyes during one of the vampire wars, and her father didn't really love her at all. Nobody understood that. She had been thrown away when she was very young. Hambo was sold off when she met Ash, who by the way treated her like a slave. She had to face facts. Things were never going to look up.

"You're locked in an eternal nightmare. Suck it up and deal with it." That was what she used to say to herself. Used to be, she would tell herself that every single day when she woke up, trying to somehow motivate herself through those words. Another great joy of being a vampire.

Why did she act strong anyway? She used to tell herself that she was stronger than any vampire, all of Ooo, and every boulder on the lands. She wasn't strong at all! What kind of vampire cared whether or not anyone else liked them? The only reason she'd won the first vampire war was to impress her dad, but did he even congratulate her, or even look at her? Of course not. And who would? She was a vampire. Nobody liked vampires.

Couldn't she at least _pretend_ that her only childhood friend hadn't been a patchy stuffed bear? That her dad kept his promises? That she still had an unbroken family? That people didn't always look at her like she was some kind of disgusting rat? Didn't matter anymore though. People didn't change, and neither did the past.

"Hey," a voice whispered. "Hey...hey, Marceline. We got you a little present."

She looked up to see Finn smiling. "What?"

"Remember when we were looking through your memories?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Do you remember that little bear you had as a child?"

She nodded.

He pulled his arm from around his back, revealing a small, patchy, half-stuffed bear.

"HAMBO!" she squealed. "How did you find him? I thought I would never see him again!"

"Princess Bubblegum found him. He lost an eye and some stuffing, but she fixed him up. Is he still as good as before?"

"He's perfect, Finn." She stood up and hugged the little bear, not caring if anyone was watching. "Thank you _so_ much!"

He laughed the usual Finn-laugh. "No problem, Marceline. But it was PB who found him in the first place. Maybe you should thank her."

The queen stiffened. Bonni, of all people... The very same Bonni that had cared far more about her wretched studies than she did her own friend. The very same Bonni who had force her to bite the princess's arm _while_ she was unconscious. Even when Marceline had gotten into that emotionally abusive relationship with Ash, which she knew about, she did nothing to help. The vampire queen hadn't asked for help, because she didn't ever want to see that candy princess again, but the fact was that PB had still learned about it. And what did she do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Did she honestly think finding a stuffed teddy bear from her past was going to make up for that? The four years she spent living under Ash's control was far worse than losing Hambo. It was an insult, not a gift!

"No," she said.

Finn's smile slowly faded as he realized that she was dead serious. "Why? She found your childhood friend."

"It doesn't make amends for past mistakes. That witch has already told you everything about me, right? Why don't you just go to her? She'll tell you anything you want to know!"

"But, Marceline..."

"Just go!"

She squeezed Hambo as tightly as possible when the she heard the door close. So what if Bonni hadn't helped her in her greatest time of need? She could handle things on her own! She was going to _make_ herself strong. She'd only stayed with Ash because no matter what, she'd thought he loved her. Until, that is, he sold Hambo. That was her limit. Oh well. That was the past. She had Hambo back now, and that was what mattered. Having Hambo back in her possession let her gain a little piece of herself she'd lost before. And even if it wasn't true, she was going to believe it.

"Come on, Hambo. Let's get some rest," she said.

* * *

><p>Several days passed and no one had seen any sign of Marceline. Princess Bubblegum was beginning to think that she'd gone away to prevent the war from destroying the Candy Kingdom. However, they had seen signs of an expanding war. Vampire carcasses were often found, and the battlegrounds were gruesome, filled top to bottom with blood. These vampires were serious about getting the queen. They fought to the death. It was actually good for Finn and Jake, who had been looking for Marceline. These dead vampires left a trail for them to follow. Since she had been gone for awhile now, it was important that they find her. Though, it sometimes got hard. After a few hours, a dead vampire smelled horrible, like a mixture of rotting onions, moldy socks, cat pee, and decaying skunks. Sometimes they would come across an entire mini-war to be greeted with the awful smell. Jake, having a much more sensitive nose, often threw up because of the odor.<p>

The search seemed endless, but they made progress. As they continued looking for Marceline, the patches of vampires steadily increased, which meant that she would be slowed down with the numbers. They just worried that one of the dead vampires they saw could possibly be Marceline.

"Marceline _has_ to be close now," Jake said as he held his nose and held back his nausea. "These vampires are everywhere..." He gagged. "There's too many to count."

"Feels kind of like we're going in circles," Finn agreed.

"Maybe we should go back to the Candy Kingdom. Marceline might've outrun them all. Besides, what if Princess Bubblegum saw her?" Jake's voice was very desperate, but they couldn't just abandon Marceline.

They both knew she was out there somewhere, each night fighting off more and more vampires. They were running out of time, though, because she'd already been badly injured during the ambush. It was no wonder she'd become the queen, but it was amazing that she had survived this long. But it might not last forever, and in between fighting and avoiding sunlight, she couldn't eat anything except red. And by the looks of things, every scrap of red there was had been gobbled up by all those hungry vampires.

"Are you noticing how every time we go through one of these vampire graveyards, they just get bloodier and bloodier?" Finn said.

"Yeah, and don't even mention how stinky they are." Especially to Jake, the more vampires, the greater the stench.

Finn looked up. "It's getting late. With all these vampire fights, we should probably find-"

Finn didn't have time to finish his sentence. A huge form in the sky hurtled towards him. He dodged it just in time. The form was a vampire, except this time it wasn't a human-like vampire, it looked just like Marceline's transformation the first time they met her. It was a huge bat with scrappy wings that somehow held it in the air. It had long blue legs and arms, all of which were equipped with sharp claws. And the fangs on that thing were just as enormous as they remembered.

Another one of the vampires came crashing down on the first one, only this one didn't hit the ground on its back. It came down only to push the first one further into the earth. A horrible shriek of pain escaped the first vampire's maw.

"Dude, what if that's Marceline?" Finn said, worried.

The victor turned toward the two, and they braced themselves for a rough battle. But it turned out to be unnecessary.

"Finn? Jake?" it said questioningly.

"Marceline! We were so worried about you!" Finn exclaimed, glad to see his friend okay and, for a fighter in a vampire war, otherwise unharmed.

"Yeah, we thought we'd never catch up to you!" Jake piped.

"You guys have to get out of here!" she hissed.

Finn laughed. "No way, we're here to help."

"Wha-? You're crazy! Jake's too scared to go up against thousands of vampires, and you're too small to reach high enough to attack one," she said.

Before any protests could be made, she leapt up into the air, just barely dodging a well-aimed attack. There wasn't just one, either. As soon as the fight started, more vampires filled the sky. They roared and screeched, determination radiating from every one of them.

"I can't protect you from all of them! Go _now_!" she ordered as she used her arms to block a punch thrown at her from her current enemy.

She shoved her arms forward, pushing back the other vampire. Her foe grunted as it tried to stand its ground.

"Ha! Gone soft on _people_?" it strained. "You're a failure of a vampire! You're unfit to be the queen!"

She was so sick of being called a failure. Over and over, the exact same thing! It was bad enough she had to feel like one, but being called one was a different story entirely. She was so sick of being treated as nothing but a sorry excuse of a life. It should've ended long ago, and she wished it had. Hambo had been her first friend. Bonnibell had been her first living friend, a sweet person who had actually tried to get along with a vampire instead of kill it. Now she had Finn, and Jake was still marginal, but... They'd seen her bite someone. They'd seen her fangs sink into someone else's skin. They'd seen the blood that always found its way out of her mouth. They'd seen her fangs, shamelessly covered with blood. They'd seen her for what she really was: nothing more than a lowly figure filled with blood lust. A vampire was what she was, and unfortunately a vampire was recognized as the carrier of all evils. So basically, she was just an evil bloodthirsty monster who fought other evil bloodthirsty monsters every fifty years. And she had shown them that.

Marceline leapt up, dragging the other vampire with her as she entered the swarm of warring bloodsuckers. One of them attacked another, obviously getting over the comment quickly. Another attack the one next to it, and the feud continued on as such.

One of them rammed her in the side, causing her to drop her victim. Another one bit her wing from the other side. It was hard to focus with all the hissing going on. Flashes of gray and blue were everywhere as each vampire tried to kill the others. There were already dead ones on the ground. It was raining blood.

She struggled, flapping both her wings to set herself free. After a few seconds it worked, and the other vampire released her. A different vampire plummeted earthward. It, like all the other dead ones, was human-like, its body not strong enough to support the transformation.

"They're dying left and right..." Jake whispered.

"Man, I wish I was a vampire. Then I could help out," Finn said.

The dog gasped. "Dude, no! Remember what the guy vampires do?"

Finn blushed. "Um, yeah. I forgot about that."

Every five minutes, it seemed, another dead vampire would drop like a fly, landing hard on the ground. Some of them even landed on top of living vampires, who were still in the air and fighting like crazy. Those ones were lazily discarded, sliding off the heads or backs of the others only to suffer the same funeral as the corpses on the ground. It was bloody gore. If each night had been like this night, then each night had been Hell on Earth.

Jake easily dodged another flying corpse. There were so many that some of them were ganging up on one or two others without even knowing it. The fight was starting to narrow down, and at this pace it would narrow right down to Marceline and whoever was left in the sky.

**A/N**

**I'm not good at fight scenes, so I'm really sorry if this was bad. But Marceline got Hambo back, yay! **

**Again, please review. I'm pretty eager to know what you guys thought about the fight scene.**


	6. Chapter 6

~Chapter 6~

By the end of the fight, the stench of vampire corpses was everywhere. Marceline had found a cave high up on a cliff to rest for the day. She'd been fighting so much that now she and all other vampires were beginning to tire out.

The boys had discovered that their first assumptions about Marceline having fought without a scratch had been very wrong. Her fur had hidden the bruises and gashes, which had been revealed when she morphed back to fit into the cave. They'd found her already asleep when they followed her, and decided to stay with her as well as sleep during the day, just in case she needed help.

She slept very heavily throughout the day, despite the fact that she was using a rock as her hadn't eaten anything for the past few days. All the red had been cleared out, and she refused to suck any blood. Finn didn't know why that was such a big deal. She needed blood to live, but why was she being so stubborn about biting people who were only trying to help her? Didn't she want the help? He had the knowledge of how to make her bite him, and now that she was asleep he could, but she would never trust them again if he did that. After all, just look at how she reacted to Princess Bubblegum's attempt to help her.

He yawned and rolled onto his side, finding Jake utterly unable to sleep in the same cave as a vampire. Finn had tried numerous times to convince him that Marceline was okay to be around, but for some reason the dog just didn't believe him. And even after she'd made it clear that she did _not_ like biting people she knew.

And speaking of biting... During the fight she'd been bitten on her wing by another vampire. Having had to find refuge in caves, the wound could've gotten infected. He wasn't sure if vampires could catch illnesses or infections, but if something medical was bothering her, it might lower her chances of survival. And with all those other vampires, her chances weren't very high to begin with.

Finn walked over to Marceline and squatted. Her wing had been on her back, so maybe when she morphed back... His hand reached for the collar of her shirt and he gently tugged on it, wondering if this was okay. It wasn't like he was doing anything bad, he just wanted to make sure she was alright. Besides, she was sleeping right now. She wouldn't know that he'd checked on her...well, what he assumed to be her "wing spot". It should be right on the bottom of her shoulder blade.

He pulled her collar slowly, _very _slowly, down, just enough so that he could peer inside her shirt to see her back. He'd been right, there were scabbed-over bite marks on her lower shoulder blade. It wasn't like the mark on her neck. Her neck had only two fang holes, her shoulder had a whole ring of them. So the injuries sustained during battle stayed even after she transformed back. Thankfully, most of the injuries she had were bruises, dark bruises, granted, but still only bruises. And thankfully, the bite didn't look infected.

He sighed in relief, and in doing so, accidentally pushed his finger against her back. She immediately woke up, hissing, and _literally_ pounced him, one hand on his throat and another raised in the air in preparation to claw at him. Her fangs were bared threateningly, but not for long. Her angry expression dropped as she realized who she'd been about choke.

"Get away from him you filthy vampire!" Jake's paw flew at her, landing a direct blow on her stomach that cause her to crumple in on herself like wet paper.

He wrapped his arm around Finn and pulled him out from beneath Marceline.

The vampire queen, not quite feeling up to standing...or even crawling, rose into the air, still holding her stomach. She coughed dryly. Jake had some kind of strength when he got all protective. Knocked the wind straight out of her. Might've even broken a rib or two in the process.

"I knew you were trouble from the start, lady!" Jake yelled.

"Kah..." she squeaked. "...Didn't...mean..."

She shook her head, unable to finish the rest of the sentence. She looked at the back of the cave and decided to go further in to spend the rest of the day. She would need all the rest she could get after that anyway, Jake probably didn't want to be around her after seeing her attack Finn like that. She had been prepared to _kill_ him... She didn't mean to jump him, but it wasn't like anyone would believe her. Jake had made that crystal clear to her. All it took was "you filthy vampire" to get it through her head.

But she hadn't meant to hurt anyone...

* * *

><p>"Finn, you okay?" Jake asked once he was sure Marceline was gone.<p>

Finn sat up and stared into the blackness that Marceline had retreated into. "Jake! Why'd you do that to her!"

"Huh? I saved you, why are you getting mad at me?"

"Dude, she wasn't trying to kill me!" he said. "I wanted to take a look at the bite from earlier but I accidentally touched her and she mistook me for another vampire!"

Jake touched his chin, ready to apologize, but didn't get to say a single word. What started out sounding like heavy hissing suddenly gained voice. It echoed throughout the cave. Soon slight whines joined the chorus.

"Oh great, Jake. You made her cry!" the blonde huffed.

"I can go cheer her up," he offered.

Finn shook his head. "No, man. She might not want to see you right after you called her a filthy vampire." He sighed. "Let me try to talk to her."

He, too, went further into the cave. The crying grew less "echoey", meaning he was getting closer to Marceline. It wasn't much longer before he found her, hopelessly curled up on the cold, hard floor of the cave.

"Wow," he breathed. "Mind telling me why a such beautiful girl is laying on the ground?"

She raised her head to look at him and sniffled.

He smiled as he held out a hand to help her up. "What's the matter, Marceline?"

She took his hand and let him pull her up, appreciating the effort, if nothing else. "Sorry you had to see that. Pretty pathetic, I know."

He shook his head. "No it's not. What's on your mind?"

She clenched her fists and looked away, taking note that she was still crying and unfortunately couldn't stop. Otherwise it would be fine to tell him everything was okay, that she'd just overreacted. She really didn't want to talk about it, and if she hadn't allowed either of the boys to follow her around, none of this would've happened. She wouldn't have to explain what was going on. And thanks to her running away at the mention of "filthy vampire", she couldn't simply come up with an excuse.

"I'm just tired of being called filthy," she answered, trying not to make such a big deal out of it.

"Tired of it? Jake only said it once. And it was because he thought you were trying to kill me," Finn said.

She threw her hands up in defense. "I swear I wasn't! All those vampires are after me and I accidentally-"

"S'okay. I figured that's what it was. No hard feelings. But seriously, what did you mean when you said you were tired of being called filthy?" he asked.

She sniffled and realized that fresh tears were coming in to replace the old ones. Fresh, warm tears. "It's because I'm a vampire, Finn."

"Huh?"

She desperately tried to wipe away those accursed tears. Nothing worked! She was supposed to be strong! Telling him was only making things worse, it was supposed to make everything better. Why couldn't she just be a human like him? She was a thousand years old, ageless. But Finn could grow and live, whereas she was this...this freak! Nobody realized how hard it was to be something that no one wanted alive.

"C'mon, Marceline, being a vampire is cool," he said.

That did it... "You don't know _anything_ about being a vampire! It's not cool, it's not fun, it's not good! Being a vampire means being hated by everyone! I watch all those people around you guys, all happy and joyful! Have you ever wondered what they do around me? They either run, or get their wooden stakes! And you see these fangs, Finn?" She opened her mouth for a second to show him even though he already knew they were there. "People look at these and wonder who's going to be my next meal! You want to know the reason everyone keeps wanting you to kill me? It's because I'm a vampire. And I'm sick of being one! SICK OF IT! I'm sick of being called a disgusting, filthy, horrible, awful, evil, bloodthirsty _monster_! I mean, I! I-I...I have feelings, too..."

Crap... She'd said way too much. She could say that she'd just been kidding, but...well...it wasn't like he was going to believe it.

Finn frowned, but quickly smiled again. "Everything's going to be okay. You'll see."

Finally... Someone had finally told her it was going to be alright. It was the one thing she'd wanted most to hear in her whole life. No one had ever said that before. The closest she came to hearing it was when she was a little girl, and she'd pretended Hambo was saying it to her. But now...now someone had said it. Whether it was true or not, she chose to believe it. She should've learned her lesson about people, but Finn was no person. No. He was a hero. A hero that truly believed she wasn't just a vampire, and one who didn't care if she was a bloodsucker or not. In fact, he'd offered her his blood. She appreciated the kind intentions, but she would never want to suck his blood. But at least this vampire mattered to somebody.

Finn put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, when you win this war, how about a concert? It'll be flippin' awesome! Just like you."

She smiled and hugged him, making sure she didn't crush his bones. "Thanks, Finn."

Suddenly, out of the blue, Jake screamed and came running. Finn looked to see Marceline already being drawn to the entrance of the cave. He got up, but Jake pulled him down and shook his head, mouthing, "No."

* * *

><p>"Hello...<em>queen<em>," a girl with short blonde hair greeted. She flashed a smile, revealing two sharp fangs.

Marceline hissed, not having realized it was nighttime already. She needed to get rid of this one as soon as possible. In this cave, there wasn't much space to produce a proper fight, and she had two people to protect. At least Jake wouldn't come out to fight, but Finn was a completely different story. He didn't fear vampires one bit, not since he met her anyway. Which was _bad_ in these situations. She had to trust Jake to keep Finn safely tucked in the back. But Finn's willpower was overwhelmingly strong, and Jake might not be able to hold him back if he decided to "help". You'd think he would learn his lesson by now... Only vampires had the capability of partaking in these wars, especially since help from anyone or anything else was considered too disgraceful.

Marceline smirked. "Long live me."

The other girl hissed in anger and lunged at her, only landing an insignificant scratch on the queen's arm. In a fraction of a second, Marceline used her head to shove the other girl over her, a little bit further into the cave.

She flew out of it, seeing the perfect chance to lure all the fights coming away from Finn and his terrified dog. She escaped into a large canyon, wondering if either blonde had followed her. Hopefully she'd baited the right one. Finn could be unpredictable sometimes. Such as times like these. He wanted so badly to participate in this war, though if he did, the others might see him as a threat and attack him. He wouldn't be able to take them on. But he would think that he could, he always thought that he could do anything and unfortunately, he set his mind to anything he wanted to do. Even if it was impossible.

She continued to watch the entrance of the cave, but no one was coming out. Suddenly there was a hard force on her back, and she found herself flying forward, landing smack into the wall of a cliff. The enormous pressure hurt her entire front, but she couldn't afford to sulk about it. The _real_ fight had begun. There were others on their way and since the numbers only grew, so too would the effort she would need to put into each battle. The war wouldn't be over for at least another two weeks and in that time there would be little to eat, be it normal food or red. It happened every time, to all vampires. When food became scarce, they all went hungry and the fights became harder. It got so bad sometimes that vampires would drop from the sky without a single wound.

And the worst part about the whole stupid hunger thing was that it would probably happen in a few days. She herself was starting to get kind of hungry.

She pushed herself off the wall and quickly regained her bearings. That blonde girl had tricked her somehow, taking the chance to transform into a much more powerful form while Marceline was practically defenseless. The girl grabbed her before she had time to do anything and squeezed, crushing the air from her lungs. Her front hurt, her stomach especially hurt, and now her lungs were struggling desperately to gain precious oxygen. She literally couldn't breathe. The pressure was more than enough to snap someone's back. Thankfully she was a vampire, and vampires were far more sturdy than humans or dogs.

She cracked open an eye to see many other vampires on the horizon. Or...what was left of the horizon. Guess you could call it the lunar horizon. They were closing in fast.

**A/N**

**Woop woop! Cliffhangers! Gotta love (hate) 'em! I have no idea why I did a cliffie, maybe because I wanted to make you mad but probably because I didn't want to make the chapter too long. I can't believe how this turned out, by the way, and if you're wondering what the stuff took so long, I couldn't seem to keep Marceline in-character and spent 80% of the time editing and re-editing this chapter. This was also the FIRST "fluffy" (I guess) scene, but I assure you it will lead up to some actual romance, otherwise I wouldn't have marked it was a romance story. **

**Please review...and all the junk that I've been saying for the past, um, every chapter.** **Also, I think I'll let the cliffie simmer in your mind for awhile while I'm collecting all your flames for this and using them to bake my cookies. ;) ...Seriously though, please, no flames.**


	7. Chapter 7

~Chapter 7~

The originally blonde-haired girl turned just in time to be rammed in the side, causing her to throw Marceline into the air, where she stayed until she could catch her breath and transform to defend herself. She had little time to accomplish such a task as many other vampires surrounded her, fighting each other as well as challenging the queen. Several of them hurled themselves at her, and each one she dodged. That blonde-headed girl was lost somewhere in the new battlefield. The trail of death left behind was unmistakeable and anyone who wanted to track them down would be able to find them.

Marceline was forced somewhere into the center of the crowd. Everywhere, she heard screams and battle cries, pain and death. It was pure carnage. As she tried to move around, seeking at least a semi-safe place to be while the others fought themselves over her title, a high-pitched whistle sang through the air. She had enough time to catch a brief glance at a little projectile before an _enormous_ cloud of black smoke filled the air. She heard a screech, recognizing it as her own, followed by several others, and then the rest of the colony was splitting and roaming everywhere to escape the smoke cloud.

She didn't even know which way she was going, she just headed in a single direction, usually managing to hit a rock or a ledge or something else hard. Eventually she made it to the edge of the cloud, where her vision grew clearer. And where she spied many colors huddled against one another. She headed for them and for some reason, she felt herself getting angry.

"Men," a small voice peeped, "hold your fire!"

She flew nearer and nearer...to find yet another setback to this awful war. Who _else_ would want to blind and disorient her? Who else would be so polite as to interrupt that which shouldn't ever have been interrupted in the first place. Now the war would last longer! Longer! As if it wasn't already long enough!

The clear image of Princess Bubblegum came into view. Her colorful subjects stood out like a sore thumb against the dreary, grayish-brown setting. Not the best decision when becoming involved in a gory war. And she had angered each and every vampire alive! That princess was so royal and protected that she didn't know right from left when it came to these things! Sugar drops like her wouldn't last four seconds!

Marceline, in order to avoid confusion among the candy people, morphed back into her more human-like self. It was hard to not attack Princess Bubblegum after the mess she'd made.

"Marceline, you're safe!" she exclaimed. "Do you feel sleepy yet?"

"Sleepy? No! Do you realize what you've done?" she yelled. "You've sent all of them into a frenzy! You've disrupted a _war_!"

"You aren't supposed to be angry," she said. "That was a knock-out formula."

The ever-present and very loyal Peppermint Butler stepped forth and held out a triangular bottle with a strange gray liquid in it. "Princess, do you mean this formula?"

The princess turned to look and gasped. "No! That's the knock-out formula! Quickly, what did you put in the missile?"

"A missile? That's what that was? YOU SHOT A MISSILE AT ME?" Marceline screamed.

"Oh, dear..." Peppermint Butler sighed. "Princess, I think we may have put the adrenaline stimulant in by mistake. I'm so sorry."

"Hey, _Your Highness_, you need to stay out of this!" With that, Marceline hooked her arms under the princess's and hoisted her into the air, with much protesting.

She brought her back to the cave where Finn was screaming and kicking to be let go of, and where Jake had used his arms like a straightjacket to tie Finn down. She set down the princess angrily and, grumbling and hissing on her way back out, left the trio to talk amongst themselves. However, Finn didn't exactly want to talk right now. He struggled impatiently against Jake, but it didn't work.

"Finn, you really mustn't go out there. I meant to distribute a formula that would put all the vampires to sleep, but we loaded the wrong one and when they inhaled it, they got angry," Princess Bubblegum said.

A horrible growl came from outside the cave, most likely deep in the canyon, where the fight was at. Several more joined in. Soon the whole cave was tremblings with the rumbles that came from outside. Jake moved himself, as well as Finn, deeper inside the cave. Afraid that Princess Bubblegum would get caught up in the savageness that was the vampires' fight, he called her to keep close to them.

That whole night was spent without any sleep, and water, any food... It was awful. Every few seconds they would hear what sounded like a T-Rex roaring its lungs out, and every few more they would hear bodies drop dead, splashing in large puddles of blood. They could literally only imagine what was happening. Even Princess Bubblegum couldn't bring herself to try to climb down the cliff despite her wishes to make sure her people were okay. Finn stopped resisting Jake, but just in case, the dog refused to let him go.

By the end of the night, there we no more sounds. Just to be sure, they waited another hour.

Jake went to the edge of the cliff to find the sun glowing brightly, meaning that he and the rest were safe from any vampires. He stretched his front legs down the cliff all the way to the bottom, where he let them settle soundly on the ground. Finn and PB climbed on his back and he departed from the cave, following the princess's orders to first look for her people. From her tone, she was hoping they'd either turned back or found safety.

Thankfully, the candy people had found a large cavern to hide in while the war went on. They were ecstatic to see that their princess was asked the candy people where Marceline had gone. They said that they couldn't tell which one was the queen because all of them had attacked every other one they saw. However, they also said that the whole war somehow moved from the middle of the canyon all the way to the outer edge, and that when the sun started to come up, the vampires focused less on fighting each other and more on finding refuge from the sunlight.

Princess Bubblegum told Peppermint Butler to lead everyone back to the Candy Kingdom. He was reluctant, but did as he was told. The next order of business was now at hand. Once again, Marceline had managed to escape them and this time they doubted she would want to be found. They traveled the way opposite of the Candy Kingdom, once again forced to go straight through the unceremonious graveyards. The vampires left in the sun weren't burning, they just lay lifelessly on the ground, usually in their own little pool of blood. Some were on top of the others, lying in someone else's pool of blood. There had to be at least a thousand vampires and the more they passed, the more gruesome it got. It was obvious that each time they fought, the more aggressive they became.

Finn wondered which ones were Marceline's victims.

As they pushed onward, they began to see small bats sleeping upside down, hanging off of stalagmites and other sheltered juts of rock. The caves, it seemed were decreasing in number, while ironically, the vampires only increased. Not surprisingly, they never saw two bats in the same place. They were safely distanced from one another. On the larger juts of rock lay dozing vampires in their human-like forms. They were cut up everywhere, their clothes ripped up and stained with their own blood as well as others' blood.

Blood, blood, blood. It was all they saw for the longest time. They pushed through the horrid odor that the others somehow slept through. Princess Bubblegum didn't complain about anything, not the daytime heat, not the smell of rotting vampires. They moved slowly, their consciences making them stop regularly to see if they could find Marceline among the grounded. And it was hard, because any of the bats could've been her.

Jake rose higher into the air, hoping to escape the scent of dead vampires. It was only a slight relief. The smell was persistent and absolutely relentless on the poor dog's stomach. He held it back for the sake of the princess, because puke was what princesses liked to see. Not that Finn liked to see it, but girls were a little different. He tried to talk as little as possible along the way, afraid of opening his mouth.

Eventually, the dead vampires began to lessen significantly, and the smell became..._tolerable_. That still hadn't seen Marceline so far, meaning that they'd either passed her while she slept in the for of a bat, or she had reached safety and was sleeping elsewhere.

"Look up there!" Princess Bubblegum shielded her eyes form the sun as she pointed to a ledge. The ledge was narrow and was veiled by the top of the cliff, which hung over it like an umbrella with rocky teeth helping obscure the view. No matter where the sun positioned itself in the sky, none of its light would reach that ledge. It was a smart choice for a vampire. And sure enough, as they got closer, a black speck appeared on the ledge. The closer they got, the clearer the image. Until finally, it was Marceline.

Jake ran under the "umbrella" and rose higher up to keep his back level with the top of the ledge, where Marceline, thank gloob, was still alive. The reason, they found out, that she'd looked like a black speck before was because she was lying face-down, flat on her stomach, with her hair blanketing her body. It was Princess Bubblegum who noticed that she was breathing very erratically, which meant something was wrong. She had to have been alive to get all the way up here, but from the way she was breathing, that could change any minute now.

The princess climbed off Jake and stepped onto the ledge, immediately dropping to her knees in front of Marceline. She bent over her and put two fingers on her throat. Her pulse wasn't irregular, which brought some relief.

"What's wrong, Peebles?" Finn asked as he got off Jake so the dog could shrink to fit on the ledge.

"Her breathing isn't normal," she replied. She turned Marceline's head and pressed her finger against the top of one of her fangs. The reflex was triggered and she bit down, although not actually biting anything.

"It's probably because she's really tired," Jake said, uncomfortably sitting on a rock.

She shook her head. "Her reflexes are working, so I don't think her nervous system was damaged. I don't know what's causing this."

Finn's eyes widened. "Will she be okay, princess?"

"No, not unless I can figure out what's going on," she answered.

She put her hands on Marceline's back and shook her, trying to wake her up. She coughed, and blood was flecked on the ground next to her mouth.

"Ooohh... This isn't good..." the princess whispered to herself. "Marceline, can you hear me?"

She didn't move, there was no sign she heard anything. Princess Bubblegum put her hands on her back again and shook her harder. It was brief, however. She took her hands from Marceline's back and looked at her hands. Wet blood covered them. PB reached for the queen's hair and pushed it off her back. The underside of her hair was clumped together, made darker by the blood. Three parallel gashes were bleeding profusely, and they were _dangerously _deep. Closing her eyes, the princess reached into one of the gashes. She felt liquid surround her hand, but kept her mind focused on finding out just how deep the injuries went. She stopped when she felt a rib. She took her hand out, certain that during one of Marceline's fights, the queen had been attacked from behind. The wounds left behind probably punctured a lung. Now the blood was slowly filling that lung, which was why she was coughing blood and breathing so strangely.

"Is she okay, PB?" Finn asked, jumping up in case his help was needed.

She shook her head again. "No, she's badly injured. If we don't get her to a hospital soon, she'll die! She needs to rest right now, but she's losing a lot of blood. She needs more...but..." She hesitated to finish. "The only way she can get more is by biting someone."

"What?" Finn said. "She's not going to do that! She hates biting people she knows!"

"I know." The princess held her arm up to Marceline's fangs.

**A/N**

**Bet you weren't expecting Bubblegum to get involved, were you? Sorry about the wait, I needed to find the right opening for this chapter. And I'm also sorry about the fight "scene". It wasn't much of a fight, I guess, but like I said before, I can't do fight scenes very well. Hope this is good enough though.**

**Please review. And stuff.**


	8. Chapter 8

~Chapter 8~

Princess Bubblegum had forced Marceline to bite her three times, and it still wasn't enough to wake her up. Jake had formed himself into his version of the ledge she had been on. No matter which way he turned, Marceline couldn't be hit by sunlight. However, the heat, according to PB, was dangerous to Marceline's wounds. She said bacteria liked warm, damp places to live, and that the intense heat in the canyon was providing the perfect conditions for the bacteria.

At times, they kept urging Jake to go faster. At other times, they commanded him to stop. Marceline's condition was significantly worsening. She was now entering coughing fits that they could do nothing to stop. They only thing they could do was to stop when she coughed, so as to avoid suffocation, and to go as fast as they could toward the Canyon Kingdom. It took a considerable amount of time, but once they reached it, their hopes plummeted.

The entire kingdom was deserted. Not a single person in sight. Not a single building remained standing. Everything was worn down and crumbled. Large claw marks had, at some point, been deeply engraved into the stone structures.

"It must have been from a previous war," Jake whispered, the whole place feeling like a ghost town.

"See if you can find the underground hospital. Every kingdom has one in case the war spreads," the princess said.

But with all the rubble from a disaster that had literally annihilated an entire kingdom and probably all its people, it was impossible to find this "secret hospital". Triangular points struck up from the ground, blocking only more dirt and ruin that lay behind it. It was so bad here that they couldn't even tell where the castle was at, and the castle was always the largest, tallest building in the entire kingdom. The place was barren, devoid of all life. Not even the wind whispered to it anymore. In its last days, the kingdom probably stood tall and strong, but then the war crossed its path and destroyed it. All of it. Shards of glass, rocks and stones, even scorched black marks, were the only things left to tell of this kingdom's once glorious existence.

"The Canyon Kingdom..." Finn breathed.

"Marceline told me the damage from the war was bad, but this is devastating," Princess Bubblegum said. "Jake, try to dig through the mess. If you find a hole in the ground, that's the hospital."

Jake, instead of wasting precious time digging around aimlessly, simply stretched his arm over parts of the kingdom several times. He pushed all the miserable buildings aside, over and over, until he finally felt the ground shift a bit.

"I think I found it. Is this it, princess?" he asked as he dug through a little more of the kingdom to reveal a large hole in the ground. It looked filthy. Cobwebs blocking the entrance sagged pitifully; they were covered with dust. Looking a little closer, dead spiders lay on their backs, their legs folded up to their abdomens. Dead flies, still wrapped in the spiders' threads, hung from strands of the cobwebs. Some of them had dropped onto the ground, right beside those which were supposed to have eaten them.

Jake covered the hold with his body to shield Marceline from the sun as he lowered his makeshift platform down into the hole, where it didn't take very long to feel the bottom of it. After making sure everyone had gotten off him, he shrunk down to his normal size and looked at the vampire queen. He hadn't seen her since they'd gotten her off the ledge. And now that he finally had the chance, he saw why they made him stop so many times. She seemed to be having trouble breathing, more trouble than she'd had before. The hole in her lung must've been bigger than everyone anticipated. Even though she needed him, Jake didn't want to watch anyone, even if it _was_ a vampire, die gasping for breath on a stone-cold ground. The Canyon Kingdom had suffered its final days, and now Marceline might be suffering hers.

"There! I found some beds!" Finn announced. As he examined them, he noticed how old and unstable they were. And how dusty the were from many years of disuse. "Kind of dirty though..."

"It's all we've got," Princess Bubblegum said as she propped Marceline into a sitting position, holding the part of her back that wasn't injured. "Help me carry her to a bed."

Finn patted down a bed, stirring up suffocating amounts of filth as well as a musky smell. He waved it away, although some of it decided to be stubborn and linger around for a bit. He pulled off the covers and shook them. Grains of dirt and yet more dust fell out. After having "cleaned" the bed, he went to help the princess carry Marceline to it. It was still dirty, though, and although one of her lungs was filling up with blood, they had no choice but to lay her on her stomach in order to keep the gashes in her back clean. Well, clean_er_. Who knows when she'd gotten them and if she had been pushed into a cliff?

"What now, princess?" Jake asked.

She shook her head. "We need sterile equipment to do anything, but this place is old and dirty that even if we found the right equipment, it wouldn't be any good."

"So we can't do _anything_..." Finn whispered. "Why didn't she just let us fight? We could've helped her! This wouldn't have happened if she'd let us fight!"

"Actually, Finn, the longer the war goes on, the more aggressive the vampires become. If she'd let you fight, the others would've attacked you on the spot, and you both would've died. She was only protecting you. I know Marceline seems like she doesn't care what happens to others, but it's all a big act. She's actually very caring and during situations like these, she would give her life to protect even people she doesn't know. That's why she told you to warn everyone about the fifty years, that's why she dragged me to the cave, and that's why she wouldn't let you fight," PB explained.

"But now she's safe! She'll _die_ if we don't do something soon!" Finn protested.

The princess thought for a second. There didn't seem to be anything they could do, and although she didn't want to admit it, Marceline would die unless medical treatment was applied to her situation. Anything found here would be absolutely filthy and probably nonworking. And judging by how horrible she already looked, with all that blood she'd coughed up staining her clothes and with those deep gashes carved in her back, her life was steadily draining away. By the end of the day she would be struggling just to take a single breath, and once she reached that stage it would be too late and nothing would be able to save her. However...there was some possible hope, it was weak hope, but maybe...

"This might not work," she said, "but there's a kingdom just past the end of the canyon, the Gem Kingdom. I'll stay here and look after Marceline. You two go to the Gem Kingdom and get medical supplies. All you have to do is tell them about her condition and that she was hit with a vampire's claws during the war. Tell them you need the supplies for a friend, but make sure you don't tell them that the friend is a vampire, otherwise they won't help you. Once you tell them about Marceline's condition, they'll give you the necessary supplies and machinery. But you need to hurry. Once the sun sets, Marceline will be too weak and she won't make it. So get there and get back before sunset."

The boys nodded and the both of them ran toward the entrance. Finn hopped onto Jake's back and the dog lifted himself and the blonde out of the murky underground hospital. They got out just in time to avoid hearing another one of Marceline's coughing spells.

It was terrible to listen to her constant suffering and not being able to do anything about it. When...no..._if_ she woke up, she would be in severe pain. As in, so severe that she likely would want to talk or move. However, the princess knew her all too well, and therefore knew that she would try to act like she was fine when she clearly wasn't. And of course, she would probably say that she didn't need the help. She would probably try to get them to safety. But she was hidden for now, so they were technically all safe. Especially since the sun was still up. No vampires would be out anytime soon. And she could only hope that they wouldn't find Marceline once they came out.

* * *

><p>"C'mon, Jake, go faster!" Finn urged.<p>

Jake panted. "I can't... I'm going full throttle here..."

"Jake, you have to! We're not far, look ahead!" he said.

He was right, in the distance was a sparkling kingdom built on gems. Every building boasted some kind of gorgeous rock that really did the kingdom justice. The castle was already in sight. Still, Jake couldn't go any faster. He had reached his limit, even with the thought of Marceline dying in a disgusting hole in the ground. Literally in her grave. Even with the thought of a tombstone as the only thing left to remember her by, he simply couldn't do it. But at least he was keeping good speed.

* * *

><p>Three hours later, and Finn and Jake still hadn't come back. Marceline's coughing was only getting worse. She might not even last until the end of the day. The amounts of blood she was coughing up now were getting dangerous. The only reason she wasn't already dead or on the verge of death was because Princess Bubblegum, no matter how dizzy she kept getting, kept forcing Marceline to suck her blood. The pillows were beaten and had to constantly be changed because they kept getting soaked.<p>

But it had been three whole hours, so they should be back soon with all the medical supplies. But they needed to come quickly; the sooner Marceline could get treatment, the better off she would be, and the sooner she could get back to full strength to fight the others. Because if the war lasted too long, it could spread to a hundred kingdoms easily. Homes would be destroyed, people would die before they had time to get out, and the dead vampires would leave the place deserted forever, just like the Canyon Kingdom. With each day they would get more aggressive, more furious that they couldn't find the queen vampire. It was the only reason Marceline had to fight.

Princess Bubblegum didn't want to tell Finn and Jake because of how much they cared about her, but Marceline would likely die in the war anyway. Supposedly she'd won three wars, which was nearly unheard of, but this was her fourth term as queen and it was ending. The chances of her surviving four wars was very improbable. And come to think of it, those wars grew loud and angry, and they were widespread and tiresome. How many times and how badly had she been hurt in the previous wars? The princess had known that vampires grew extremely hungry during these time periods, and many had died from starvation. They needed blood once a month to sustain themselves, but it was much different with the vampire war. The war took a ton of energy, and a ton more to deal with all the wounds inflicted upon them. Fighting day after day with no time to feed, it drained them of nutrients and they became severely malnourished. Even now, Marceline wasn't doing too well because all the blood she gained was coughed up. Her body couldn't absorb the nutrients fast enough. Another reason Finn and Jake had to come back soon. The sooner she got better, the sooner she could stop using energy to heal.

There was still the dilemma of how to get her to drink blood though. After she was well enough to move around a little, she wouldn't suck anyone's blood. And once she was strong enough to fight, she wouldn't have time to suck any blood. Especially since it took a few minutes for those tiny holes in her fangs to get so much as a sip of blood.

"Princess!" she heard Jake's muffled voice call. "Princess, we're back!"

**A/N**

**Sorry, guys. These last few days have been super busy. I had my birthday party, my birthday, my parents' anniversary, and then my mom's birthday. It's been hectic and I haven't had any time to work on this chapter. Hope you enjoy despite the long-ish wait!** **Oh, and thank you very much for all your reviews; they really inspired me.**


	9. Chapter 9

~Chapter 9~

"You're lucky to have gotten here when you did," Princess Bubblegum said as Jake lowered himself, with Finn on his back, into the underground hospital. "Any later and Marceline's condition might've been too bad to treat."

"We got all the medical stuff you asked for," Finn replied, trying to ignore the part about Marceline too close to death to be saved. "It's in Jake's pouch."

Jake smiled and chuckled as he opened up his belly to prove Finn right; he'd used his powers to form a pouch for the medical supplies. He waddled over to the princess and pulled out the biggest machine, which, as it turned out, he'd stored by sucking in his gut and stretching it out behind his back to make more space.

"They said this was some kind of pump," he said as he set it down.

It had a zigzag thing that looked a lot like a bag behind a glass cylinder. It was a crude, boxy thing that really did look important. The main body of it seemed complicated, with many buttons and flashing lights. It had a solar panel, meaning it was powered by the sun. It was a good choice, considering vampires couldn't come out during the day, and considering the fact that since they were under several feet of clay and rock, there wasn't an outlet. All they had to do was take it above ground and let it charge, which the gem people said only took half an hour. There was also a long, transparent cord attacked to one corner of the pump. It didn't have a needle on the end of it, but it narrowed down significantly.

Next, Jake pulled out several plastic bags containing a clear liquid in them. Following those was what looked like a coat hanger, with two upward hooks on top. And following that was another slim cord, this one containing a needle on the end. Several more of the same cords were pulled out to accompany the first one. Lastly, loads of fresh, clean bandages that came in conveniently large, wide rolls were held in Jake's paws. He kept holding them so they wouldn't get dirty, being as there were no non-dusty tables available.

"Thank you, Finn and Jake. I'll get to work on Marceline. In the mean time, you two try to clean this place up," she said. "Start with the tables so we have somewhere to put the bandages."

While the two boys got to work on tidying up the tables, the princess moved the pump over to Marceline's bed. It wasn't that hard since the thing had little wheels. She pulled up the long cord that extended from it and held open Marceline's mouth, careful to avoid touching her fangs. The cord was pushed into her mouth and down her throat. But it had to be taken out when Marceline went into another coughing fit. The pillow her head rested on was once again bloodied, but it would have to wait. The princess tried again after the coughing stopped. She slid the cord into Marceline's mouth, down her throat, and turned it toward the left side of her chest, where the penetrated lung was. She pushed it down further until she felt the bottom of the lung. Being very gentle, she pulled it up a little and held the cord there for awhile while she started up the pump. It only took a few minutes for the hissing noises of the air compression to be heard. It only took a few seconds more for blood to be seen being pulled from the lung. It wasn't very gross because after a bit, the cord looked more like a red cord than a blood-filled tube. There was no slurping noise that was emitted from the machine; it was surprisingly silent aside from the soft hisses.

"Finn," she called after she was done checking the machine.

Immediately, the blonde came rushing up to her. "Yeah, princess?"

"I need you to help me sit Marceline up," she said.

Finn went around to Marceline's legs and threw them over the edge of the bed while Princess Bubblegum helped her sit up.

"Okay, Finn, hold her up like that," she instructed as she slumped Marceline onto Finn.

She wasn't anywhere near as heavy as he thought she'd be. In fact, she was super skinny. As in, so skinny he could feel her ribs more clearly than he should. He wanted to believe it was just because she was a vampire, but...honestly, a vampire was just a human that had special powers and could suck blood. He highly doubted she had an eating disorder; she just wasn't like that. It had to be the war that was doing this to her. She was losing weight because between fighting and resting for the next fight, she had literally no time to eat. And there was nothing _to_ eat. So it wasn't just her, then, it was all the vampires in general. They were starving.

Careful to avoid certain areas, he moved his hand lower. Her stomach dipped in under her ribs. It was slight, but it went to show how bad this was getting, and how dangerous this could be for her. He wondered if Princess Bubblegum knew she was underweight. He wondered if anyone else knew how badly the war had gotten to her. And there was nothing he could do... Nothing at all... She was suffering, the terrible fighting having been so harsh on her that her body was starting to give out, and he could do _nothing_ about it.

He put his hands back on her shoulders and held her upright while the princess lifted her shirt up. He _immediately_ looked away and began to flush. Thankfully she noticed and told him that she needed him to keep holding her up because she needed to wrap the bandages around her. Even though Marceline was unconscious, and even though he'd already seen her naked...

He noticed Jake was also looking away, which served as a great relief. Princess Bubblegum was a girl _and_ the only one who knew how to perform medical tasks, so in a sense, she was allowed to see Marceline like this. Still didn't change the fact that Finn was forced to hold her though...

The princess encircled Marceline's lower back, leading all the way up to her chest, in thick bandages. The wounds on her back reopened in the process, but the bandages held and soaked it up, leaving red blotches parallel to one another.

"They'll need to be changed later, but they'll help the injuries heal faster," PB said.

"What about her lung, will that heal?" Finn asked as he helped lower the no-longer exposed vampire onto the bed. They were mindful of the cord in her mouth, and that it couldn't stretch too far. The machine was moved closer to her head.

"Hopefully. Lung tissue takes awhile to heal, even with proper treatment." She pointed to the machine. "This pump will keep her lung clear until the tissue heals. Until then, we need to keep her out of danger. The more she moves, the faster the blood will fill her lung."

"Hey, wait. She still has another lung to breathe with, why would-" Jake was interrupted immediately by an angry Princess Bubblegum.

"If the lung fills up, the blood will overflow and start draining into the other one!" she snapped.

Finn could only watch as the princess huffed and moved to pat out the dust on another pillow. He'd never seen her so protective of Marceline before. Seemed like, despite their constant spats, she wanted to make up with her. And now that PB was having to take care of her, Marceline seemed to become all the more important. He didn't know whether it was just because she was so badly injured or if it was genuine regret for her past mistakes. But it was weird. Marceline hadn't become more important just to the princess, but to himself as well. And the worst part was, he didn't understand why. He'd always liked Princess Bubblegum and had never once looked at Marceline this way before.

The vampire queen groaned and opened her eyes. She looked tired and worn out. It was surprising that she was even conscious, considering there were bags under her eyes from where she couldn't rest. But that wasn't necessarily good news. Now that she was conscious, she wouldn't suck blood. And from the looks of things so far, vampire flesh didn't trigger the bite reflex for some reason. It would be easier if it could, though. Then they could simply bring her a dead vampire...that is, if it wasn't fully rotten yet. During her fights, before she nearly died, she could've prevented hunger by stealing another vampire's blood. But unfortunately it just didn't work that way. And she was so stubborn that she refused to suck blood from someone she knew.

Princess Bubblegum bent down to eye level with her. "How are you feeling?"

Marceline just looked at her with a vacant stare. She obviously was trying to process where she was at, how she got here, who had brought her here, and how they'd found her in the first place. And probably why there was a tube going down her throat, which was pretty random and freaky when you just woke up.

"Where am I?" she murmured, the cord down her throat messing up the way she talked. Her voice was so soft it was almost inaudible.

The princess smiled in relief and answered, "You're in an underground hospital in the Canyon Kingdom. We found you on a ledge and brought you here."

"That'th impothible; the Canyon Kingdom wath dethtroyed in the latht war," she whispered tiredly.

She tried to sit up and look around, but Princess Bubblegum wouldn't allow it and pushed her back onto the bed. Marceline hissed as her back hit the bed. "Sorry, but you need to take it easy for awhile. The sun is still out, so you don't have an excuse to get out of this bed."

"I'm fine!" she retorted.

Finn decided it was his turn to help knock some sense into her. "You got hurt _really_ bad, Marceline. You're pretty banged up."

Jake nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, you were coughing up blood and everything."

"Ith that why there'th thith thing in mah mouf?" she asked, pointing to her mouth in case no one understood what she was saying.

Princess Bubblegum nodded. "It's connected to a pump. It's pulling the blood out of a punctured lung."

"I don't like it. It maketh me talk funneh," she huffed stubbornly.

The princess furrowed her eyebrows in frustration. "It's the only thing keeping you alive! Stop acting like you're okay when you clearly aren't!"

In an act of defiance, she tried to sit up again, but only to have PB push her down again. She grunted. "What are you going to do when the thun goeth down? They'll sheck here and if I'm thtill in here when they do, we'll _all_ die." She propped herself up on her elbows. "I have to fight whefer you want me to or not."

**A/N**

**Well, this took forever. I've been making Marceline youtube videos, and I've been having lots of trouble uploading them. It literally takes hours. I only uploaded three videos, I've been working on a fourth. Then youtube shut down my account, and so I'm having to re-upload them all on my new account. (Cartoon Network got me.) If you guys want to see one of my videos, (only got one uploaded so far) then just type in "Marceline-In the End". I also have Already Over by Red and Take It Off by Ke$ha, but those two aren't uploaded yet. I'm working on Circus by Britney Spears. But I think I did well so far, so please check out my videos. It wasn't easy putting Marceline clips together with some of those songs.**


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